On Wednesday, French prosecutors said the designer will stand trial later this year for allegedly hurling anti-Semitic remarks toward a couple at a Parisian bar last week.

If the designer is found guilty, Galliano could face up to 6 months in jail and up to $31,000 in fines.

Ouch.

For those of you still scratching your head at how this could happen, let us explain.

Back in 1972, France modified a 1881 freedom of the press law that reads:

Those who … have provoked to discrimination, hatred, or violence with regard to a person or a group of persons due to their origin or their belonging or non-belonging to an ethnic group, a nationality, a race, or a specific religion, will be punished with imprisonment between one month and one year and with a fine of between 2,000 and 300,000 francs or with one or the other of these penalties.

The law covers "speeches, cries, or threats expressed in public places or meetings".

In 1990, the country also created the Gayssot Act, which prohibits "any discrimination founded on membership or non-membership of an ethnic group, a nation, a race or a religion".